Arizona Interfaith Power & Lighthttps://www.azipl.org
A Religious Response To Climate ChangeWed, 20 Feb 2019 17:37:10 +0000en-UShourly1https://wordpress.org/?v=5.0.3118303933You Think You Can Change the Climate?https://www.azipl.org/2019/02/16/you-think-you-can-change-the-climate/
https://www.azipl.org/2019/02/16/you-think-you-can-change-the-climate/#respondSat, 16 Feb 2019 23:07:48 +0000https://www.azipl.org/?p=2779“You Think You Can Change the Climate?”
I was not prepared when an acquaintance at a Super Bowl party asked this question in response to my sharing that I am working on the climate crisis. It seemed a long time before my response, “yes I do.” That got me thinking.

Being a climate activist is a challenge. Although science interests me, debating does not. I feel God’s presence in my life, but not the impulse to proselytize. Good public speakers inspire me, but the thought of presenting a formal paper makes my knees knock. And I definitely do not relate the climate crisis and creation care to politics or tribal orientation. Being a citizen who leads by example is my style. That doesn’t engender followers, but perhaps that technique will stimulate action. To that end, I offer the following list of actions the Green Team and I have taken that do indeed, change the climate:

– We have begun a program to limit single use plastic at church and home.
– The team has planted a demonstration garden with elementary students.
– We have recycled plastic and cans from the Salt River Recreation Area.
– Our preschool has planted a veggie garden.
– Recycling plastic, aluminum, glass and corrugated directly helps.
– We collect green waste and dig it into gardens to trap carbon.
– We personally finance as well as plant trees to increase O2 (oxygen.)
– Repurposing unwanted household items reduces mfg. new items.
– We have divested our retirement accounts away from fossil fuels.
– Our family car is a hybrid with terrific mileage with batteries/gasoline.
– When forced to fly we buy carbon offsets (AZ Interfaith Power & Light.)
– Added insulation causes our home air conditioner to run less.
– Our community garden helps avoid trucking food into the stores.
– We installed a high efficiency heat pump at home & church.
– We switched lighting at home & church to reduce power needs.

These are a few activities that have proven to improve our environment, changing the climate. The time for action is now. Can you help?
By EarthKeeper, JP Smith.

]]>https://www.azipl.org/2019/02/16/you-think-you-can-change-the-climate/feed/02779Green New Dealhttps://www.azipl.org/2019/02/11/green-new-deal/
https://www.azipl.org/2019/02/11/green-new-deal/#respondMon, 11 Feb 2019 23:08:50 +0000https://www.azipl.org/?p=2775Last Thursday, Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Massachusetts Senator Ed Markey, released a resolution to Congress and a broad outline of a vision for a Green New Deal, a plan to battle climate change as well as economic injustice. It sets goals for some drastic measures to cut carbon emissions across the economy, from electricity generation to transportation to agriculture. In the process, it aims to create jobs and boost the economy. Sixty members of the House and nine senators are co-sponsoring the resolution, including several presidential candidates. ( The Resolution in pdf).

Their blueprint proposes to develop a carbon-neutral economy in 10 years. Specifically, the resolution says it is the duty of the federal government to craft a Green New Deal “to achieve net-zero greenhouse gas emissions”. That includes getting all power from “clean, renewable and zero-emission energy sources”. It does not call for a cessation of new fossil fuel extraction.

The resolution says significant portions of the American population are suffering from declining life expectancy, exposure to pollution, and lacking access to healthy food, healthcare, housing, transportation and education. It spotlights wage stagnation, lacking socio-economic mobility, income inequality, a racial wealth divide, a gender pay gap and weakened bargaining power for workers. Accordingly, it endorses universal healthcare, a jobs guarantee and free higher education.

The resolution also includes a call “to promote justice and equity by stopping current, preventing future, and repairing historic oppression of indigenous peoples, communities of color, migrant communities, deindustrialized communities, depopulated rural communities, the poor, low-income workers, women, the elderly, the unhoused, people with disabilities, and youth”.

As Senator Kamala Harris said: “For too long, we have been governed by lawmakers who are beholden to big oil and big coal. They have refused to act on climate change. So it’s on us to speak the truth, rooted in science fact, not science fiction.Here’s the truth: climate change is real, and it is an existential threat to our country, our planet, and our future.” And Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez stated: “The Green New Deal will be similar in scale to the mobilization efforts seen in the Marshall Plan . . . Half-measures will not work . . . The time for slow and incremental efforts has long past.”

It is clear that the food system, from the seed to supper to the landfill, exerts a major influence on greenhouse gas emissions and climate change. The resolution seeks collaboration with farmers and ranchers “ to remove pollution and greenhouse gas emissions from the agricultural sector as much as is technologically feasible, including— (i) by supporting family farming; (ii) by investing in sustainable farming and land use practices that increase soil health; and (iii) by building a more sustainable food system that ensures universal access to healthy food”. The Organic Consumers Association is already calling for the food movement to get behind the Green New Deal.

Check out your own favorite environmental organization – Sierra Club, Friends of the Earth, Green Peace, 350.org, the Sunrise Movement, etc. See what they are saying. Climate change hearings have already begun in Congress. This is a non-partisan issue, a planetary issue for our fellow inhabitants across the globe. It may not feel like it right now in our own country because the Green New Deal is bringing climate deniers to the forefront, as well. But the Green New Deal is certainly a clarion call. It will certainly be a major debate issue in the 2020 election. And certainly there should be a role for the faith community to engage in this dialogue. We at AZIPL would love to hear from you! Perhaps consider joining one of our three Action Teams – Food Justice, Environmental Justice, or Renewable Energy. We need your voice and your passion.

]]>https://www.azipl.org/2019/02/11/green-new-deal/feed/02775I Still Love You, But…https://www.azipl.org/2019/01/13/i-still-love-you-but/
https://www.azipl.org/2019/01/13/i-still-love-you-but/#respondSun, 13 Jan 2019 22:45:19 +0000https://www.azipl.org/?p=2765https://www.azipl.org/2019/01/13/i-still-love-you-but/feed/02765AZIPL – A Year in Reviewhttps://www.azipl.org/2018/12/26/azipl-a-year-in-review/
https://www.azipl.org/2018/12/26/azipl-a-year-in-review/#respondWed, 26 Dec 2018 23:13:24 +0000https://www.azipl.org/?p=2757As we look forward to 2019, it is important to look back and reflect. Here we offer our readers a glimpse of the work that YOU helped us accomplish this past year.

In our effort to “nourish intentional and diverse relationships across Arizona,” we recruited 16 new activists who attended our March “Be the Spark” workshop, added five new covenant congregations, two new Board members (one of the Islamic faith) and produced 8 events outside the Phoenix area. Among these were “Can Ice Cream Save a Warming World?” in Tucson and leading a storytelling workshop at “Common Ground on the Border Conference” in Sahuarita. We partnered with our Hispanic partners at CHISPA in four events, including “Clean Busses for Healthy Ninos.” We added 215 new contacts to our email list.

We produced 6 food justice events. Among these were the “All God’s Critters” storytelling concert and dinner at the Franciscan Renewal Center, “Just Food” storytelling at Saguaro Christian Church in Tucson, and the “A Climate for Change: What Can I Do? How Shall I Be?” workshop, Tempe. We featured three food justice articles in our newsletter. We met with Prescott area congregations to promote “Harvest of Care Gardens” and enlisted two congregations to create vegetable gardens in 2019 and work on Earth-care programming.

In our goal of “cultivating activism”, we hosted Erin Pratt, from Minnesota Interfaith Power and Light, to conduct a “Be the Spark!” workshop that included 8 new activists from outside Phoenix. In addition to the 5 events outside Phoenix, we hosted 15 events in Phoenix. We provided testimony twice at the Corporation Commission and we gave tremendous energy to support ballot initiative 127, “Clean Energy for a Healthy Arizona,” collecting signatures of support from 65 faith leaders, writing LTE’s and offering two workshops. Two of our Board members were trained by the Climate Reality Project. We sent our ED and a Board member to the IPL Conference in D.C. We promoted 5 “March for Climate, Jobs and Justice” eventsand helped lead the march in Prescott.

We did “find creative ways to help people connect with Earth and communicate about climate change” by producing 5 Earth-related storytelling concerts with 30-60 participantsat each. Among these were “Tree Stories” for Tu B’Shvat at Temple Emanuel and two “They Will Inherit the Earth” workshops with Fr. John Dear in Prescott and Tempe. We participated on a panel with the National Council of Jewish Women. We utilized the Marshall Ganz “Public Storytelling” approach in 4 workshops with 20-40 participants/workshop. We promoted 3 events that offered direct encounters in nature with 10-40 participants/event including a “Super Moon Walk” and a “Lovers Walk” in cooperation with the Museum of Walking.

We thank all of our partners and fellow activists in the climate change movement for their inspiring work. Even in the midst of these unsettling (you pick your own adjective!) times, we see hope in local communities across America as well as across the planet. Let us commit to continuing the fight to protect Mother Earth!

]]>https://www.azipl.org/2018/12/26/azipl-a-year-in-review/feed/02757New Harvest of Care Gardens in Prescotthttps://www.azipl.org/2018/12/10/new-harvest-of-care-gardens-in-prescott/
https://www.azipl.org/2018/12/10/new-harvest-of-care-gardens-in-prescott/#respondMon, 10 Dec 2018 23:11:56 +0000https://www.azipl.org/?p=2733On December 8, at a kick-off workshop in Prescott, AZIPL announced the selection of the Center for Spiritual Living and St. Paul’s Anglican Church to participate in the Harvest of Care Gardens program, a new regional initiative of AZIPL as part of its targeted focus on food justice. The mission is to encourage more faith communities to build vegetable gardens on their property, provide a major portion of the harvest yield to those experiencing hunger, and to work on educational programming to connect the act of gardening to our spiritual stewardship call to care of the Earth. AZIPL is providing funding to the Center for Spiritual Living Prescott while the University of Arizona Cooperative Extension Yavapai County is providing a grant to St. Paul’s through federal sources.

Patrick Grady, AZIPL’s regional coordinator for this initiative in Prescott, opened the program with a brief talk about the link between food and faith as well as a program overview. Rebecca Serratos and Mary Barnes spoke about the work of the Cooperative Extension Center and how their services could assist these congregations. Rebecca also announced the start of a new training module for all aspiring gardeners, “Seed to Supper” that will begin in January at their Yavapai County center. The 6-part series will be available to all; our new Harvest of Care Garden partners will be attending. Patrick closed the meeting with encouragement to find other local faith community partners who might be interested in joining this initiative for the 2020 growing season. More partners will enhance the viability of the network of faith-based gardens and provide support to its long-term sustainability. We wish our new partners best wishes on their gardening adventure.

17,000 Climate Leaders trained and working around the world! You can be trained (for free) by experts in climate change and community organizing in Atlanta or Brisbane, Australia. Dozens were trained this year from Arizona/Nevada, so you will have support and may consider joining the Baja Chapter in Tucson. Put this training in your climate toolbox to get out there and be more effective in creation care!

]]>https://www.azipl.org/2018/11/04/what-do-these-veggies-have-in-common/feed/02703Creation Care Community Outreach at Dove of the Desert…https://www.azipl.org/2018/10/31/creation-care-community-outreach-at-dove-of-the-desert/
https://www.azipl.org/2018/10/31/creation-care-community-outreach-at-dove-of-the-desert/#respondWed, 31 Oct 2018 21:21:19 +0000https://www.azipl.org/?p=2700Dove of the Desert United Methodist Church http://www.doveofthedesert.com/

The Board of Church and Society at Dove will be presenting “Global Warming – A Christian Perspective” on Saturday, November 10 in rooms 15/16 from 10:00 am – 2:30 pm. This presentation is the product of months of hard work and current research by members of the Dove Church and Society Board. Much effort was put into gathering and fact checking the data being presented. Please join us to educate ourselves on the issue in order to learn and consider what possible roles we, as Christians, might have as stewards of God’s creation on managing Climate Change. There will be discussion breaks included in this program. We are asking for RSVPs by November 5th so that we can arrange the seating in the room and plan for a light lunch.

RSVP to Marti in Dove’s office at 623-572-7334 or email Jill at jillllar@yahoo.com

Along with the Global Missions training I received to become a EarthKeeper in the Methodist church, UMCOR also published some of the projects attendees accomplished when they were commissioned to go back to their communities. Creating a church garden and Green Team were my projects and these were spread across the U.S. via the web page referenced above. Just some encouragement to look for information outlets that may not be obvious. Thx, JP Smith.